Deep in the Amazonian rainforest of southern Colombia, the thunderous Rio Caquetá winds through the densely forested flatlands before entering nearby Brazil as the Rio Japurá. Across this remote region, a series of indigenous reserves, national parks and forest reserves conserve and protect some 2.5 million hectares (almost 6.2 million acres) of unparalleled wildlife, including the black caiman and the black-headed uakari. This area is also home to several small indigenous and campesino (peasant) communities dotted along the mighty Caquetá.

Over the last 100 years, these communities have witnessed a boom and bust economy based on unsustainable extraction of rubber, cocaine, cedar and gold. Weak governance and a growing demand for fish for both local consumption and national markets have also led to an uncontrolled extraction of fisheries resources in these rivers and nearby lakes.

For more than a decade, CI Colombia has worked with these communities to identify and address the factors affecting the sustainable use of natural resources in their territories. In my 18 years of working in the Amazon, I’ve traveled many miles by river and small creek, had numerous encounters with magnificent wild animals, eaten countless meals with community members and had as many long and passionate conversations with them. These discussions have allowed me to see that we share many common views and aspirations about the future of these forests and the people who live here.Continue reading →

Not many people get to spend their work days scuba diving on some of the world’s most pristine coral reefs. But for my colleagues and me in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, regularly monitoring the health of these important ecosystems is an important part of our jobs.

Yet diving poses a certain degree of risk; everything from faulty equipment to accidents to marine animals occasionally threatens the safety — or even lives — of divers. When it comes to CI’s work, that’s where Edgardo Ochoa comes in.

As CI’s dive safety officer, Edgardo recently led a dive safety training with staff and partners in New Caledonia — ensuring that not only will we be more safe while diving, but that we can do our jobs better. Continue reading →

Each year on March 21st, the U.N.’s International Day of Forests celebrates the value of Earth’s forest ecosystems, on which nearly one in four people depend on in some way for their livelihoods.

Here in my home country of Ecuador, the national government’s Socio Bosque (Forest Partners) program has made great strides over the past few years in conserving forests and improving the lives of local communities. This week, I’m excited to host Peter Stonier and John Martin from CI’s visual storytelling team, who have come all the way from Washington, D.C. to document what I consider one of the most successful — yet underpublicized — forest conservation initiatives. Continue reading →

This week, dire news continues to come in from Vanuatu, as residents struggle to recover from the destruction unleashed by Cyclone Pam on the island nation. Although Vanuatu may have experienced the most damage, it’s not the only place to feel the impacts. Today on Human Nature, CI’s Greg Stone reports from Kiribati.

The sun rose quick and quiet over Tarawa. This island is home to the capital of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, the largest atoll nation in the world and the only country that is in all four hemispheres; its 33 islands in the Central Pacific straddle both the equator and the international dateline.

The previous evening had been pleasant, with a genial ocean breeze. Now the sun commanded the sky and drove the temperature above 90 degrees Fahrenheit [32 degrees Celsius]. Sweat ran down my back and off my forehead as I walked along the edge of the lagoon.

I had returned to Kiribati to meet with government officials and partners working together on the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), a project CI has been involved with for over 10 years. I had more than PIPA on my mind, however, as Cyclone Pam — a Category 5 storm — had just spun like a giant pinwheel across the South Pacific. At its strongest, it generated gusts of wind up to nearly 200 miles an hour, flattening thousands of buildings and killing at least 11.

Unlike Vanuatu, Cyclone Pam did not directly hit Tarawa, nor any of the islands in Kiribati. However, the waves it generated pummeled many of the islands, which rise no more than a few meters above the ocean. Continue reading →

Although conservation funding still remains woefully inadequate to tackle global deforestation, signs of change are pointing in the right direction as individuals, companies and organizations step up to assume responsibility and address the most glaring of gaps.

This month, I’ve been heartened to hear two important developments connected to CI’s work: Continue reading →

Last year, John Weller and Shawn Heinrichs blogged about their film”Guardians of Raja Ampat,” which they produced in conjunction with CI. Now, they’ve just returned from an Indonesian tour showing the film to one of its most important audiences: its subjects.

A thousand faces glowed in the light of the two-story-tall outdoor theater screen. The mood of the crowd changed minute by minute in reaction to the film: excited whispers and inside jokes as they saw themselves and their village on screen; pursed lips and angry sideways glances as a fish bomb exploded; nods of agreement, sweet smiles and even tears at the end.

But the end of the film was only the midpoint in this event. Moments later, hundreds of fists flew into the air as Edo Kondologit — Papua’s most famous singer, who donated his time to headline the tour — leaned forward into the climax of his song “Aku Papua” (“I Am Papua”). The crowd screamed the lyrics into the night, proclaiming their heritage, declaring their solidarity in the name of conservation. Continue reading →

Today is World Wildlife Day, an important observance for raising awareness about the extinction crisis taking hold of our planet.

The situation on the ground remains dire. Elephants and rhinos remain in poachers’ crosshairs. Sharks and rays are illegally targeted in the Pacific. And the pangolin, a harmless, scaled forest mammal that eats ants and termites, now has the added distinction of being the most trafficked mammal on the planet, with over a million snatched from the wild in just a decade.

In January I launched “Making the Links,” a monthly blog series in which I attempt to connect the dots between nature and people in some recent news stories. (To learn more about the goal of the series, read the first post.)

This is the first blog in Human Nature’s “Environmental Peacebuilding” series, which will chronicle CI’s growing role in this emerging field of research. Today’s post focuses on our case study in Liberia.

When I began working in Liberia right after the Accra settlement ended Liberia’s civil war in 2003, I could not help worrying about whether the peace would last. Burnt-out cars lined the streets of Monrovia, bullet holes scarred many of its buildings and the wary U.N. peacekeepers manning checkpoints behind sandbags and barbed wire reinforced the sense that violence could flare up again at any time.

Now, 12 years later, the roads are lit by streetlights rather than smoky fires in oil drums, the checkpoints have been dismantled, and I would like to believe that the country has put civil war firmly in the past.

That said, Liberia’s development needs are enormous. For the majority of Liberia’s 4.3 million people, daily life was a struggle even before last year’s deadly Ebola outbreak that so far has taken the lives of 3,900 Liberians. More than half the population lives below the poverty line. Continue reading →

In a study released last week, NASA warned of a pending “megadrought” in the American Southwest and Central Plains, invoking comparisons to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The study, conducted by researchers from NASA and Cornell and Columbia universities, predicted that such a drought could start within the next 35 years, cause severe water shortages and destroy vegetation across the region.

The Dust Bowl lasted about a decade; this drought could extend three decades or longer, putting recent water shortages in California and Texas into tighter perspective. According to one of the study’s co-authors, Cornell’s Toby Ault, “We really need to start thinking in longer-term horizons about how we’re going to manage it.”Continue reading →